Wardrobe Malfunction
by shadow282
Summary: Blake is determined to find out why Sun has been avoiding her teammates, Sun is desperately trying to keep all his limbs intact, and Yang is trying to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. All stemming from a single innocent question caused by an unintended consequence.
1. Chapter 1

"Sooooooo" Sun said, clearly unconsciously drawing out the word through nervousness "Weiss is studying at the library, Ruby and Yang are out in the city. It's just you and me here." Blake stared at him, carefully keeping her face completely neutral. "I was wondering, since we're here alone, in your room, if maybe you wanted to watch a movie on your scroll? You know, in the bed together. Not together together but because it's such a small screen."

"Sun, are you saying you want to bed me?" Blake gasped, lifting a hand to cover her mouth as if in shock. If Sun wasn't so nervous, he probably would have noticed how ridiculously exaggerated it was.

"Um, no, that's not, what I meant was-" he began before noticing the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. His tail grabbed a pillow and threw it at her. "You're mocking me! I'm trying to be all sincere here, I can't believe you'd do that."

Blake dodged around it and burst out laughing. "Well, I'm partners with Yang. I was bound to pick up some things from her. We can watch a movie together Sun. As long as you behave yourself."

"Of course, of course. What I was thinking was we watch..."

They were about halfway through the movie, and Blake was having a great time. The movie was quite entertaining, and Sun had been behaving himself the entire time. She was just thinking that maybe his behavior deserved a reward when the top of her scroll lit up with a message from Yang. **Hey Blakey, Rubes and I are done and will be back in a few minutes. You better not be doing anything naughty with Sun!**

Blake felt her face flush as she read the message and, swearing to herself she would have a conversation later with her partner, turned to Sun to apologize. However, when she looked at him she saw something weird. He stared down at his shirt, and his face turned red. He looked scared more than he looked embarrassed.

"Um, it's getting kinda late. I should get going. I'll see you later Blake!" With that, he quickly jumped out the window and was gone. Blake stared out the window and felt her annoyance rising. She knew she'd have to deal with Sun's weird behavior at some point, but she put that aside for the moment.

Right now, it was time for a very, _very_ long talk with her partner about what was and was not an appropriate joke.

/

Blake was fed up with Sun's behavior. Movie night was the first time it had happened, but Sun was now doing it like clockwork. He never came to visit her when her team was around. He practically sprinted away if she mentioned they might be coming around later. She wasn't stupid, she had quickly realized he was avoiding the rest of her team. She had tried politely asking him about it, but he had denied it and quickly changed the topic. He clearly wasn't going to tell her on his own.

That was okay with Blake. It simply meant she would need to be more sneaky about the whole thing. Which is what had led into tonight. Weiss, Ruby, and Yang were all out in Vale somewhere getting dinner. They would be gone for most of the night. Blake invite Sun over, telling him that she wanted to hang out her room alone. Right after she sent the message, she went and locked the window. When she let Sun in, he was so excited talking he missed her locking the door behind them.

They sat talking for a while before the alarm Blake had set on her scrolled buzzed. She grabbed it from the table, looked at it for a second, and said "Looks like dinner ended early. Ruby says they'll be back here in a few minutes." Sun suddenly jumped up again, wearing that same panicked expression on his face.

"Um, I just remembered I promised to meet Neptune tonight. I'll see you later, okay Blake?" He blurted out as he raced to the window and threw it open.

Well, _tried_ to throw it open. Fortunately, the lock held tight and didn't budge. Sun spent a few more seconds trying to open it before sprinting to the door. Again, the lock held against his efforts to pull it open. After that failed, he looked around the room, clearly panicking. He noticed something on the floor, quickly grabbed it, and pulled it over his head.

Blake was sitting there watching the whole scene unfold so she got an excellent view of Sun as he turned around. She considered the sight in front of her and couldn't decide whether it was more irritating or amusing. She was leaning towards amusing, but that was before she heard a loud tearing noise from the shirt Sun had pulled over his clothes. Specifically, Weiss' expensive new shirt. Somehow Blake doubted Weiss was going to take that particularly well. Then again, it did present her with the perfect opportunity.

Blake quickly grabbed her scroll and took a picture. "Now, if you don't want me to send this out to Weiss, why don't you tell me what's really going on? Why are you avoiding my teammates?"

His face clearly showed an internal struggle before he sighed and said "Okay, here's the thing..."


	2. Chapter 2

**A few weeks ago**

"Hey Yang, can I ask you something?" Ruby asked her timidly, which immediately set off alarm bells. Ruby was a lot of things, but she was very rarely nervous to ask her sister something.

"Of course, what is it?" Yang replied. She watched as Ruby fidgeted, clearly working up the courage to ask her question. Ruby was such a great leader, such a good fighter, that it was only at times like this that Yang remembered that Ruby really was years younger than her.

"Well, you know Blake's friend Sun. He's been hanging around with her a lot." _He certainly has._ Yang thought to herself. Not that she minded. Trying to watch those two flirt ran from adorable to hilarious. Plus, Yang very much appreciated watching some other things while Sun was around. Not that she held any interest in him, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying a nice view.

"Well, you see, he doesn't really wear much of a shirt ever. And when I look at him like that, I feel this warm feeling coming to my stomach, and, um, other areas..." Yang felt cold as a sudden panic gripped her. Maybe that's where her thoughts went when he was around, but Ruby was _way_ too young to be thinking that.

It's not like Ruby had never had The Conversation. Yang had been the one to do it herself. She certainly wasn't going to let her father do it again. She had some very clear memories of him stammering through that horribly awkward conversation, and she had told him she would handle it with Ruby. There was no reason to inflict those particular scars on both of them.

And she did have it with her. Sort of. Sure, maybe she skipped over a few things, but Ruby had been barely a teenager. It's not like she would need those things until much, much, much later. Yang had told herself she would finish it when Ruby was older.

Fifteen had _not_ been what she had meant by older. Sure, she should probably talk to her about it. But this was her baby sister. She told herself it could wait for a year or so longer. Plus, there was no way she was going into this over someone that Blake was already crushing on pretty hard. She quickly ran through a list of excuses, and finally came up with one that might work.

"Oh, that? Don't worry about it, it's nothing. He's a monkey Faunus, they radiate heat like that. I'm sure we've covered that in class somewhere, right?"

"Um, I don't think so..."

"Right, of course we have! Now, who wants to go to the bakery and grab some cookies?"

She watched her sister's eyes light up, clearly forgetting entirely about the conversation. Just as Yang had known it would. It was the same shortcut to distract her sister she had been using for years. Sure, it was a tad manipulative, but Ruby was hardly complaining about it. Yang started walking while her sister started going on about what kind of cookies they should buy. Yang only half listened, only making vague positive remarks at every pause, as she planned exactly how she was going to explain to Sun what he needed to do next.

/

"Hey Yang, how's it going?" Sun said as she walked up to him. He was, like every day, hanging around outside the school waiting for classes to end.

"We need to talk. Alone, now." She said, turning and walking down the hall until she saw an empty room. She didn't need to look behind her to see if Sun was following her; she knew there was no way, with her tone, that Sun wasn't right there. She closed the door behind them and tried to start talking before Sun cut her off.

"Listen, I know what this is about. Yes, I'm interested in Blake. And I know you are too. But that doesn't mean we have to fight! She's a big girl, she can choose for herself. Let's both just agree to respect her wishes and stay friends whatever happens, okay?" Sun quickly blurted out.

Yang sighed. She was _not_ interested in Blake. At all. Why did everyone keep assuming that? _Sure she's beautiful and smart and brave and talented and..._ She shook her head before she could get distracted. Those were thoughts better explored another time. Right now, she had to worry about her sister.

"It's not like that, okay? And anyway, this about my sister and you."

Sun suddenly got a worried look in his eyes. He knew full well how she felt about protecting Ruby. "Um, what about her?" He was clearly going to go on but thought better of it and shut up.

"Well, Ruby has been getting certain thoughts about you. Whenever she sees you wearing that shirt." Sun looked down at his open chest and a sudden panicked look came on his face. The realization wasn't quick enough to let him dodge her when she pushed him into the wall. "She's my little sister. I _do not_ appreciate anyone giving her those thoughts. Especially not someone who is two years older than her. So let me be clear: if you show up around her wearing that admittedly appealing outfit again, I'm going to rip off the tail. Understood?"

Sun saw the red flaring in her eyes and did the only rational move in the situation. "Yes, of course! I don't want anything to do with Ruby like that! I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

Yang nodded, satisfied, and walked out the door. Behind her, she could barely make out Sun muttering to himself, "I really, really should have packed multiple outfits..."


	3. Chapter 3

"I cannot believe you told that to Sun!" Blake yelled.

"It doesn't seem like that big a deal! He could just wear a different shirt!" Yang responded.

"He shouldn't have to change his outfit because you're afraid of a conversation with your sister. She's fifteen years old, not five. You can't keep treating her like a child."

"Oh yeah? If it's so easy, why don't you just talk to her?"

"Someone needs to, and if you're too scared to do it maybe I will!"

It was at that exact moment that Ruby walked into their room. "Hey, what's everyone yelling about? Is there a problem in here?"

"Nope, no problem Rubes. We were talking about your questions about Sun. Blake here has something she wants to tell you. Isn't that right, Blake?" Yang said.

Blake had been fully ready to have this conversation up until the point where Ruby was standing right in front of her. Seeing her here, with a curious expression on her face, was too much for her to handle. Yang had clearly failed, so Ruby would surely have a lot of questions, questions that Blake realized she really, really didn't want to have to answer. And it seemed clear Yang wasn't going to help but just stand there and laugh at her floundering attempts to educate their team leader. They stood there for several seconds, Blake repeatedly trying to bring out the words but them getting caught in her throat, before she turned and bolted out the door.

On her way out of the building she bumped straight into Weiss. When Blake saw the annoyance flick onto her face and Weiss began to open her mouth to scold her, an idea popped into her head. "Sorry Weiss. I was actually looking for you. Ruby had an academic question she needed answered, and we all thought you were the best possible person. She's in the room now, why don't you go there?"

Blake watched annoyance change to excitement, "Really? Finally, she's learned the importance of studying. I'll go help her right now." Weiss said before starting off to the room.

Blake knew she needed to hurry. She quickly ran outside and started climbing the tree near their window. Sure, she didn't want to be the one to explain it to Ruby, but there was no way she was going to miss out on watching. Especially not with Weiss doing the talking.

She didn't know exactly what would happen, but she did know it was going to end up a disaster. And she would be there to watch it, and, more importantly, record it for the future. This was going to entertain her for years, she just knew it.

/

Weiss stood there and debated which one of her teammates to kill. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't kill both of them; losing two teammates would completely throw off their fighting dynamic, and that would inevitably lead to lower combat score. An outcome which was, obviously, completely unacceptable. The problem was she couldn't decide which to murder and which to encase in ice and explain in excruciating detail why their actions were unacceptable. Yang was the obvious choice since this whole situation was entirely her fault. Blake, however, was the one who had tricked her into running headlong into it. Who was more at fault, the woman who created the problem or the one who made it _her_ problem? It was amazing how one tiny question could present her with such a vexing dilemma.

If she had been given time to prepare for Ruby's question, she probably wouldn't need to mete out such harsh punishments. After all, when she had walked in she was in a fantastic mood, thinking that Ruby was finally taking their studies seriously. Instead of that wonderful scenario, she was greeted with Ruby's "Why does looking at Sun's muscles give me weird warm feelings inside?" It was such an unexpected question, it had taken her a few seconds to even process the meaning. Her thoughts had then immediately turned to figuring out her completely justifiable homicide.

Which, she suddenly realized, meant that she had been completely silent for almost a minute. Ruby was fidgeting nervously, waiting, and she had wasted the time she should have been thinking of the best answer deciding on her revenge.

"Well, that's a complicated question." She answered, trying to buy a little more time to think.

"How so?"

"Clearly you talked to Yang already. What did she tell you?"

"She said something about Faunus radiating heat, but then I thought about it and that didn't really make sense." _That_ was the best Yang could come up with? Weiss looked over to glare at Yang, but her only response was a small shrug. The meaning of "Your problem now" was clear, and Yang shot up to the top of the list.

"Obviously." Weiss snapped. Ruby visibly flinched back at her tone, assuming it was directed at her, and a flash of guilt ran through her. It wasn't Ruby's fault her sister had done her such a disservice.

"What it means is, um," she stammered, trying to think of the best way to describe sexual desire in the most broad terms possible. She didn't think she was emotional equipped to give Ruby a detailed sex talk. "Look, when a woman loves a man-"

"Ew, does that mean I love Sun? Because Blake loves Sun, and I can't love the same guy as her, right?" Ruby's innocence in that regard was almost charming. She very nearly answered "Your sister disproves that notion" but it died on her lips. That was a potentially explosive problem to be dealt with another day. Preferably when she was far, far away.

"No, Ruby, it doesn't. You can have these feelings for anyone. But you're not going to act on those unless you love someone, understood?" Not advice she intended to follow or even something she expected Ruby to follow for long. But for now, she was an innocent, at least in this regard, surrounded by people several years older than her. Weiss knew she needed to set that rule sooner rather than later. She had found that Ruby's attention started declining proportionally with the length of the conversation.

Weiss waited for Ruby to nod at her before continuing. "What you're feeling is called being aroused."

"Or, if you're not repressed like Ice Queen, horny, turned on, or hot." Yang said. Weiss resumed her glare. That being Yang's "contribution" to the explanation was the least surprising thing in this whole conversation. And, while she was proud of the fact that her teammate knew the definition of repressed, Yang was completely wrong. Weiss simply hadn't found the right person yet. Mostly because the only person who she had ever wanted was standing here staring at her.

"There's nothing wrong with getting aroused, Ruby. It happens to everyone. It only becomes bad if it leads you to do something you shouldn't do, which we've already agreed isn't going to happen."

"Okay. But if I get aroused, and I can't do anything with anyone, what am I supposed to do?"

Weiss felt her face begin to flush red as Yang smirked at her behind Ruby's back. There was no way she was going to touch that one. Ruby could live with having to learn some things on her own.

"You just have to be patient and it'll go away."

The look on Ruby's face showed she still had plenty of questions, but there was only so much of this she could stand at once. "Why don't you write down anything else you want to ask, and someone can go over it later, okay?" She used the word someone very deliberately; she had absolutely no intention of continuing this discussion. This conversation had already gone well beyond her responsibilities as Ruby's partner. Ruby nodded, blurred around the room briefly, and ended up on her bed writing furiously into her notebook. Ruby continued that pace for a distressing amount of time before putting the pen down.

By the time Ruby was finished, Weiss had devised the perfect revenge. She was going to lock the rest of her team and Ruby's notebook in a closet and only let them out once they had answered everything. Since she had needed to deal with it, Weiss was determined to make her teammates suffer the same. It was only fair.

/

Blake paused her scroll on a closeup of Weiss' red face and burst out laughing. Sure, she had already watched it six times, but Ice Queen was so rarely flustered that it never stopped being amusing. She looked over at Sun, and while he had a small smile on his face, he mostly looked contemplative. He noticed her gaze and said "So, uh, I guess you love me, Blake."

"Sun?" She responded.

"Yeah?"

"Don't push your luck."

* * *

 **As a quick note, I feel like I made a mistake here. This was never meant to be longer than a short story, but I honestly didn't really think about putting that at the beginning. As several people have been kind enough to point out, that's absolutely something I should have made clear. So, for full transparency's sake, the plan is to wrap this up in two more chapters of about this size. I apologize for not making that clear initially.**


	4. Chapter 4

Becoming an adult was a lot more confusing than Ruby pictured. She was prepared for challenging combat and difficult academics. She absolutely wasn't prepared for the conversations with her teammates over the last couple days.

The conversation yesterday with Weiss had been more general and left her with some important questions. The second this morning with Blake and Yang was far more enlightening. Neither one seemed like they particularly wanted to answer her questions, but Weiss' solution of throwing them all in a closet and icing it shut behind them didn't leave much of a choice. Ruby wasn't sure how she convinced Blake and Yang to go in there, but for her the promise of strawberries was enough to let Weiss lead her anywhere. A promise which had not been delivered, a grave injustice that would require balancing in the near future.

But, even though she was tricked, Ruby was glad that it forced someone to finally give her straight answers, especially when Weiss wasn't in the room. There were several questions she asked that were a little too revealing about her feelings for a certain heiress. The ones she was having for a while but never felt comfortable talking about to anyone. Her plan was simply to ignore them and hope they went away when she began to feel something similar when she looked at Sun's stomach. She went to Yang hoping that her explanation for one would enlighten her about both of them. Of course, Yang's blatant lie about it dashed that hope pretty quickly.

She figured out Yang lied to her as soon as the sugar high wore off, but she hadn't really seen anything she could do about it. She spent the next weeks trying to work up the courage to ask someone else about it, but honestly she wasn't entirely sure she would ever have gotten there. Fortunately, the two ambushes by her team gave her more information than she could possibly have needed.

Not that most of it mattered to her now. Right now, she was perfectly happy with her first two loves, fighting and Crescent Rose. Romance came far, far behind those. Still, it was much easier to deal with these new feelings now that she understood them.

Although there was apparently one method of dealing with these emotions that none of her teammates wanted to tell her. All she knew about it was that Yang briefly mentioned something about "getting herself off" before a horrified Blake stopped her from continuing. Whatever it was, it was something she would clearly need to explore for herself later. She already had a few ideas based off some of the other things they told her, but she thought it might take a while to figure it out exactly.

/

She figured it out last night. Several times. And, wow, was there a lot there she didn't know existed. A lot of things that she wanted to continue to explore later. But, now that she got that mystery to a satisfying conclusion, there was something else that was bothering her about the last few weeks.

Yang was always protective of her, sometimes to a stifling degree. But threatening Sun like that went well beyond anything she had done before. It only really made sense if there was something else behind it, something that Ruby didn't think Yang even realized. She needed to point it before it was too late.

She waited for the first time she could get Yang alone, and they ended up sitting in an empty classroom. Ruby already decided being direct was the best approach. "You completely overreacted with Sun."

"No I didn't! I was trying to protect you." Yang replied.

Ruby gave her a skeptical look. "Really? Is that all you were doing?"

A flash of guilt briefly flitted across Yang's face. "Okay, fine, maybe I was protecting both of us."

"That's not the main reason, and somewhere deep down you know that." Ruby said gently.

"Oh yeah? What's the main reason, then?" She replied.

"You did it because keeping Sun away from me helped keep him away from Blake."

"Why would I want that?"

"Because you're in love with Blake too." Yang started a denial, but Ruby held up her hand and she fell silent. She worked to make her tone as soft as possible. "You need to decide what you want, Yang, before one of them does it for you." Ruby said as she turned and walked out the door. She made her point, now all she could do was give Yang time by herself and hope she could figure out her feelings. This whole situation showed how explosive things might get it Yang couldn't come to terms with them.

/

Yang didn't like to think. Not to say that she considered herself stupid; while she was rarely the smartest woman in the room, she didn't have to make much effort to keep up with anyone. It never really bothered her. People can't be good at everything, and her skills lay in other areas. She would take her fighting ability over more intelligence any day. No, she simply preferred doing over thinking. When she was fighting or dancing or flirting she could lose herself in the moment. Her troubled past didn't matter, her uncertain future didn't matter. All that mattered was the thrill of the present. Too much thinking inevitably brought back memories of the mother who left, the mom who died, the dad who distanced himself for years. The little girl who was forced to raise a child when she should have been raised herself. The numerous mistakes she made as she fumbled around trying to provide something she never got to experience herself. It was simply easier to keep going when she didn't dredge up memories of her past.

But sometimes it was unavoidable, so she went where she always did in these situations. It was a little something she discovered once when she was looking for Blake. Right against one of the walls, painted so similar to them it was impossible to see from the distance, was a small abandoned building. It was probably an old barracks of some kind; there were beds lining the walls as well as a small kitchen and bathroom. But, most importantly, the doors were locked tight. The only way in was through a broken window near the roof. It was impossible to get in without making a significant amount of noise, which meant there was plenty of warning if company ever came. She scaled through the window, dropped to the floor, flopped down onto one of the surprisingly comfy beds, and started truly considering what Ruby said.

She tried to keep Sun away from Ruby to avoid having that awkward conversation with her. Whether or not that was okay was a separate issue, but that was definitely the reason. _Sure, it also kept him away from Blake, but that was only a side benefit_. She thought to herself. The thought sent a little shock through her. Why would it have been a side benefit? She liked Sun, and it was good for her normally reclusive teammate to get out more often. She was happy that Sun became friends with Blake. Wasn't she? She examined those feelings a little more and found that hidden under that happiness was a sliver of something else that she never noticed before. Or, more likely, didn't want to notice before. Sitting in there, obvious now, was a little bit of jealousy. Jealousy that Sun was showing interest in Blake, and jealousy that Blake was showing interest back.

The feelings shocked her. Yang had never dated anyone before. She had been with people before, but those were all momentary things. There, _thoroughly_ enjoyed, and never thought about again. She never wanted anything more than that. Relationships were pointless; sooner or later they would snap, and she would be left alone to pick up the pieces. Again.

She always resisted the emotional attachment part, which she realized is why she didn't see it growing. Didn't see Blake changing from her partner to something more. Something she, for the first time ever, desperately wanted. That didn't mean she ever would have willingly tried to sabotage Sun, but clearly she had unconsciously done it.

She needed to go apologize to Ruby. Even if she didn't mean to do it, she used her little sister as an excuse, and that wasn't okay. Of course, she also needed to apologize to Blake and Sun tomorrow. A conversation which will probably be even more unpleasant than explaining sex to Ruby.

It would also mean a monumental shift for her. Because tomorrow she would start showing Blake she was interested in her. It was exactly like Sun suggested; they would both be there, and Blake could pick whoever she wanted. If Blake picked Sun, she would deal with it and be a supportive friend to their relationship. Yang felt a smile light up her face and her mood brightened. Because before that potential heartbreak, there was a competition to be fought.

May the best woman win.


	5. Chapter 5

When Yang found Ruby, she was lying on her bed reading one of her comic books. She walked over and jumped up onto the bed beside her sister. "So it turns out you were right."

She gave Yang a knowing look. "Obviously. It wasn't that hard to figure out." Yang glared at her in annoyance.

"You don't have to be so smug about it."

"I don't get to give you advice much, Yang. Let me enjoy it while I can." Ruby raised a fair point. Which is why Yang counted to ten before slapping her lightly on the hand.

"You officially can't anymore." Yang said. Ruby stuck her tongue out at her before responding.

"So, when are you going to ask Blake out?"

"I'm not."

"Why?"

"Because if I asked her out, she would say yes."

Ruby gave her a dumbfounded look. "Isn't that the point?"

"Yes and no. Look, I know she likes me." That much had become obvious once Yang admitted her own feelings. The unnecessary touches, the lingering glances, the slightly suggestive comments all told the same story. If Yang was being honest with herself from the beginning it would have been obvious, but she never could have noticed Blake's feelings without admitting her own. "But she also likes Sun. If either one of us asked her on a date, there's no way she would refuse."

"Okay, so go ask her now before Sun does. It's his own fault for waiting too long." Ruby said, her tone making it clear that she thought her solution was patently obvious.

"If I do that, I'm essentially forcing her to choose me." Yang sighed. She had spent a lot of time thinking about this before coming here. She desperately wanted to go with Ruby's suggestion, but it wouldn't be fair. To Blake or to Sun. "I want to be with Blake, Ruby. But more than that, I want Blake to be as happy as possible. Maybe that's with me, and maybe that's with Sun. I shouldn't make that decision for her."

"That's incredibly stupid." Ruby said.

"Sun clearly feels the same way, or he would have asked her out already."

"Sun's an idiot, _you're_ an idiot. If you like someone, you should ask them out!"

"Oh, really?" She said, a playful smile appearing on her face. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her scroll. "Let's call Weiss then, shall we?" Figuring out Ruby had a crush on her partner was the best thing that came out of their conversation in the closet. Her own love life was an unexplored minefield, but teasing her little sister was nice, familiar ground.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled, the panic clear in her voice.

"Look, it's ringing. Wonder how quick she'll pick up?" Yang was suddenly hit in the face with a cloud of petals as her scroll disappeared from her hand. Five seconds later Ruby was back in the exact same position, rose petals were falling all over the room, and her scroll was nowhere to be found. Yang knew from experience it would take her at least an hour to find wherever Ruby stashed it.

She laughed, leaned over, and ruffled Ruby's hair with her hand. Like always, Ruby let it happen for a few seconds before shoving it off. "It would be nice if it was that simple, Rubes, but nothing ever is."

"Fine, be that way. If you won't ask her out, what are you going to do?"

/

As Sun walked into RWBY's dorm room, he was mentally preparing ways to escape. Blake said that the whole situation with Yang was resolved, but the blonde had a fiery temper. "Resolved" might go out the window the second she saw him. Which is why, when he walked through the door, he listened to make sure it didn't lock. And why he had his staff with him in case he needed to break through the window. When he saw that Blake and Yang were sitting quietly talking, he relaxed a little. But only a little.

"Sun, good. Yang has something she wanted to say to both of us."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to threaten you. I should have talked to Ruby about it instead."

"We all talked, _very_ extensively, about everything with Ruby." Blake shuddered a little at that, and Sun was left wondering exactly how awkward that second conversation must have been for her. "She understands what she was feeling now, and it won't be a problem again."

"And I promise I'll never do anything like that again. So, friends?"

Yang nervously ran her hand over the back of her neck, and Sun was struck with the sudden impression that she wasn't being entirely truthful. The apology was sincere, but there was something more she wasn't telling them. Blake, however, didn't seem to notice, and Sun decided to let it go. It wasn't really his business; all that mattered to him was that the whole situation was resolved and that he didn't have to worry about an enraged sister yanking off his precious tail.

"It's okay. Let's just move past it." Sun said.

"Excellent!" Yang said. She came over, held out her hand, and waited for him to shake it. He took it, obviously, but the gesture completely confused him. It was so unlike her he couldn't think of a reason why she did it until he saw what she did next. She walked over, wrapped Blake in a hug, and whispered "I'm sorry." into her ear.

She also very clearly winked at him over Blake's shoulder, and he suddenly figured out what she was doing. That was what she had been keeping out of her apology. He quickly quelled the surge of annoyance that ran through him. Yang's behavior was completely unacceptable, but she seemed genuinely guilty about it, and he didn't think for a second she had done it purposely. She was, however, making it clear that this whole thing had somehow led her to realize she wanted to get serious with Blake.

Sun was fine with that. Blake very clearly liked both of them. If they both showed their interest in her, she was perfectly capable of making the decision by herself. If Blake ended up picking Yang, he would deal with it. He wouldn't be happy about it, but if that's what she wanted he wasn't going to be a bad friend by trying to stand in its way.

Until then, though, he would put his best effort into this. Sure, it could end up breaking his heart, but Blake was worth it.

/

"That's a very bad idea." Neptune said.

"Not so loud, okay?" In retrospect, talking to Neptune about this in the middle of Beacon's grounds probably wasn't the best idea, but it was a little late to worry about that now. Sun had forgotten that Neptune's inside and outside voices tended to blur together. "You said you would support dating Blake." Sun replied.

"And I would be supportive if you were dating her, but you're not. You've decided on this stupid competition instead. Do you know what I did when I wanted to date Weiss? I asked her out."

"Neptune, she completely rejected you."

"Yeah, and that sucked. But then I got over it and moved on without uselessly pining over her." Sun held his reply until a group of students walking by the tree were out of earshot.

"So what if that happens to me? She never talks about it, but I know Blake came out of a very bad relationship right before Beacon." Blake let that slip one night on accident. He was sketchy on the details, but he could guess enough of them that he knew asking her about it wasn't a good idea. "I know she likes me, but what if she says she's not ready for something more?"

"Then you give her time to get ready and try again. She's turning you down on a date, not stabbing you in the heart." Neptune said, his annoyed tone making clear his disapproval of Sun's plans.

"It'll feel the same to me. Plus it'll be awkward for a while, and then Yang will have more opportunity to get close to her, and then she'll probably choose her over me when she is ready."

Neptune sighed. "This is going to blow up in one of your faces. The deeper you get in this, the harder it'll be when she finally chooses one of you."

"Sure, but if I don't ask her out then things won't be uncomfortable if she chooses Yang. If she turns me down it'll be weird, but if I don't ask everything will stay the same. Being good friends with her isn't the worst thing in the world."

"Fine, but when this inevitably goes bad I'm going to say I told you so."

"You always do."

"Yeah, what else are friends for?"

* * *

 **So my plan for the story ended up being much longer than anticipated. Rather than cram everything into a final chapter, I decided to keep it going. Not sure for exactly how long, but I'll let you know when I've got it nailed down.**

 **Also I changed the rating to teen, which is probably where a story about explaining sex should have been this whole time. It's not changing anything about how the story is written, so if you've gotten this far the rest of the story will be fine.**


	6. Chapter 6

Blake was lying on her bed reading when Yang walked into their room. "Hey Blake, the Vale carnival starts today. Ruby says we all need to go to it. Something about a chance to do some team bonding."

"Isn't the carnival a kid's thing?" She asked. Yang laughed as she hopped up onto the bed beside her.

"Sure, but if you haven't noticed my dear sister is still kinda a kid. But I promise there's some fun things for us adults to do too." Blake doubted it. Large, crowded, loud spaces were the exact opposite of fun.

"I don't know..."

"Please?" Yang asked, looking her straight in the eyes. Yang couldn't do puppy dog eyes nearly as good as her sister's, but it was still hard for Blake to say no staring into those beautiful lilac pools.

"Fine."

"Yes! You're the best, Blakey!" Yang reached over and wrapped her in a hug. Blake tried to ignore the pleasant warmth radiating off her partner as she gently pushed her off.

"I can't go if you suffocate me, Yang." Blake said. Yang quickly leaned away from her and blushed, and Blake found out that "cute" was the only word that could aptly describe her partner when embarrassed.

"Sorry. Let's go, Rubes and Weiss are waiting for us downstairs." Blake followed her partner out the door and tried to look on the bright side. Sure, she still didn't particularly want to go, but she also had never really had a bad time spending the day with her team. With them, this carnival could turn out to be a lot of fun.

/

Her first impressions of the carnival weren't great. It had certainly looked impressive as they walked towards it. Set up right outside the city, they could see some of the rides towering over the usually empty field. A large Ferris wheel loomed over the whole area accompanied by a winding rollercoaster decorated with images of Grimm. She had no doubt that they both provided beautiful views of the city on the right and the forest on the left. But that was all before she got close enough for the rest of her senses to kick in.

The smell hit her first. It was a potent mix that could only come from a large group of people sweating in the heat. The only solace for her was that underneath that smell, barely detectable, was the smell of delicious food. If she focused on the smell of popcorn, hot dogs, and some kind of sugary treat, she could almost block out the bad. Not fully, but she hoped she would get used to it.

The sound hit next, and she doubted she would be able to block it out nearly as well. The chattering of hundreds of people talking combined with rides blaring obnoxiously happy music hit her like a wave and stopped her in her tracks. She might have turned around and left them if Yang hadn't walked back to her and grabbed her hand. The comforting gesture provided a solid sensation to anchor herself.

"If it's too much for you to handle, we can turn around and go back to Beacon now. Ruby will understand." Yang said. Blake bit back the automatic agreement that almost came out. Part of her really wanted to say yes, but a bigger part didn't want to ruin the team activity. Or, she had to admit, let go of Yang's hand.

"No, I'll be okay. Just give me a minute to get used to everything." She took a few deep breaths and focused on Yang. She let the smell of smoke that surrounded her, the warmth she radiated like a heater, and the pleasant sensation of holding her hand fill up her senses and drown out everything else. She smiled at her partner. "Much better. Let's go." They started forward again to find Ruby and Weiss were waiting for them by the entrance.

"You guys ready?" Ruby asked. Blake nodded, and they entered the carnival.

"Where are we going first?" Weiss asked. Blake looked over at her to see that, even though she was trying her best to hide it, there was a slight look of disgust on her face. Apparently enhanced senses weren't necessary to find the place unpleasant.

"Well, why don't we go to the face painting booth? The line takes forever unless you go early." Ruby said.

"Sure, if that's what you want." Weiss said as she smiled at her partner. If Ruby wasn't so excited, she probably would have noticed the smile was completely fake. Blake wasn't particularly excited about it either but seeing Weiss's discomfort at the idea was definitely worth it.

They were walking to it when she heard a shout of "Funnel cake!" followed by a blur of petals shooting past her. Ruby accidentally hit her side on the way past, and the unexpected blow was hard enough to knock her off balance. She would have fallen to the ground if Yang hadn't been waiting to catch her. And, when cushioning her fall, put her hand in the wrong place. Or, as the thrill surging through her suggested, maybe very much the right place. She quickly moved her hand and pushed Blake back to her feet.

"You okay?" Blake nodded, still too flushed from what had happened to speak. If Yang noticed her reaction, she gave absolutely no sign of it. They followed the petal trail to see Ruby sitting at a table with a large plate of some kind of dough with powdered sugar over it.

"I assume that's the funnel cake?" Blake asked.

"Yep! It's one of the most delicious things in the world. Go on, try it!" Blake sat down, grabbed a piece, and popped it into her mouth. While Ruby's love of sugar may have clouded her judgement, Blake had to admit it was quite good. "You too, Weiss." Blake turned to see Weiss standing behind her with a dubious expression.

"It really is pretty good." Blake said.

Weiss opened her mouth to respond before her eyes widened in shock. "Ruby, seriously?" Weiss said. Blake turned around to see the whole thing was gone except for two small pieces. Yang laughed beside her and ate one of the pieces.

"Don't worry, they'll be plenty more of them over the day." She said.

Weiss hesitantly ate the last piece, and her face twisted in disgust for a second before that fake smile returned. "It's good."

Ruby smiled back at Weiss, hers full of joy, and grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's go! You guys are taking forever!" She said, apparently forgetting that she caused the detour. She ran ahead with Weiss while Blake and Yang walked at a leisurely pace behind them. By the time they reached the room, Ruby and Weiss had already disappeared inside. They waited outside until Ruby came bouncing out the door. There was a pretty good cartoon Beowolf painted below her eye.

"Nice choice Rubes. I'm next." Yang said before entering the room. It didn't take long for Weiss to walk out. There was a small dog on each of her cheeks.

"Aww, Weiss, you look so cute!" Ruby said. Blake moved past Weiss as she started blushing and entered the room. She walked in to see there were two chairs on opposite sides. Yang was in one of them, but Blake couldn't see what she was getting through her long hair. She sat down at the other one and looked at the various designs on display while the artist patiently waited for her. She scanned over most of them before she finally found one she wanted, a stylized fire with trails of smoke rising above it. She pointed it out, and the artist went to work. He was much faster than she would have thought, and it only took a few minutes for her to finish and walk out the door. Yang was waiting outside for her, and when she saw what was on her partner's face she couldn't help but laugh. It was an adorable green dragon with "Rarr!" coming out of its mouth.

Yang smiled back at her. "Looking good, Blakey." She took her hand again, and that same feeling of pleasant warmth went through her. "Ruby decided she wanted to go on the rides next. They went ahead to get in line for the rollercoaster." Blake followed Yang's lead, and by the time they reached the rollercoaster Ruby and Weiss were already halfway through the line. Blake was surprised considering how crowded the carnival was until she saw how quickly the rollercoaster moved. It took longer to load up with people than it did to ride it, and Blake suddenly grew a little nervous. She had never actually been on any kind of ride, especially not something like this.

"It not nearly as scary as it looks." Yang said, apparently noticing her apprehension. "I promise you'll enjoy it." Blake nodded, took a few deep breaths to calm herself, and waited for their turn. She managed to keep the nervousness away up until they had actually been locked in her car, at which point it came back in full force. But, before she could say anything, the car shot forward and started moving upwards on the track. She tried her best to steel herself for what she knew was coming but hadn't really gotten it before they reached the top of the track. She had about half a second before they plunged down the other side. She felt like she left her stomach at the top of the track, but as they picked up speed and went up and down the smaller hills she couldn't keep the smile off her face. Despite the slight nausea, the ride was a lot of fun.

It was over quickly, and as they shuffled out of the car Blake felt her stomach return. "How was it, newbies?" Yang asked.

"It was a lot of fun." Blake replied.

"Yeah, it was." Weiss said. Blake looked over to see the first genuine smile of the day on her face.

"Cool. We have to make one little stop, and then we can go again." Ruby said. Her "one little stop" ended up being another funnel cake that she inhaled mostly on her own, and they returned to the line. They ended up going on the rollercoaster five more times, but Blake never got tired of the thrill of the whole ride.

They had another stop for more funnel cake before they went to some of the other rides. Bumper cars were next, and they were also more fun than she expected on first sight. Once they got in there, Blake couldn't deny there was a childish excitement in smashing into the side of one of her teammate's cars. After was a "fun house" that was clearly meant for children. Nothing in it was particularly interesting for her, but Ruby saved the experience. She bounced through the whole thing with such infectious enthusiasm that Blake was swept along with it. The final ride in the carnival was the Ferris wheel. That line took a while, and when they did get to the front she saw that the cars were only big enough for two people. Ruby and Weiss went in the first one, and Yang and Blake went in the second.

"So, are you having fun?" Yang asked. Blake thought about it and realized the carnival was turning out to be a lot more fun than she would have thought possible. She also realized it had been hours since she even noticed the overpowering smells and sounds that she thought would bother her the entire time.

"Yeah, you were right. There were plenty of fun things to do."

"Good. And we haven't even gotten to the best part. Just wait until you see the view from the top." Yang's face lit up from an idea. "Why don't you close your eyes on the way up? That way you won't spoil the view." Blake thought that was a bit unnecessary, but she decided to indulge her partner. After all, Yang hadn't been wrong yet. She closed her eyes, and they sat in companionable silence until Yang tapped her on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and her heart skipped a beat. The view of the city from up here was gorgeous, but that wasn't what she cared about. All she cared about was Yang. With the setting sun bathing her in a golden light and a warm smile on her face, she looked like an angel. Yang was always beautiful but framed like this she was breathtaking.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Blake took a few seconds to breath before she could even respond. Even then, a brief "Yes." was all she managed to get out. Yang turned away to look at the city again, and Blake tried to calm down her racing heart to little avail. She was a little worried her partner might turn around and notice something, but Yang kept looking at the city. They started to go down again, but she still didn't turn around until they reached the bottom. Blake used the extra time to school her face into something neutral. By the time they were getting up, Blake looked like her usual self. Or, at least, she desperately hoped she did.

When they walked out, Ruby and Weiss were waiting at the exit. Weiss looked as stunned as Blake felt, and she suspected Weiss had gotten a similar view of her partner. Thankfully for her, Ruby's obliviousness was in full effect so she didn't notice anything was different.

"Anything else you want to do, Rubes?" Yang asked.

"Nope, I'm good. I think today's been another successful mission for Team RWBY."

"Yeah, it was great." Yang said. Weiss and Blake, still recovering, could only manage a nod. "Let's go home."


	7. Chapter 7

"Come on, I need you to do this for me. Sage and Scarlet already bailed." Sun pleaded.

"Absolutely not." Neptune replied. "You can go with her by yourself. You don't need me there."

"Of course I do! I already told her we were going as a group. If I'm the only one who shows up, it'll seem weird."

"Too bad. I already have plans for tomorrow."

"No, you don't. You're just terrified of the water." Sun said. He tried, but he knew he couldn't keep all his annoyance out of his voice.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Neptune lied. Sun sighed. He didn't understand his friend's terror of the water, but he could acknowledge that there was probably a good reason behind it. What was more annoying and less understandable was his transparent lies about his fears.

"Good, then there's no reason not to go. Come on, I'll owe you one."

Neptune took a few minutes to consider that, but he finally nodded. "Fine, but you owe me big. Like, whatever-I-want big."

Sun broke out in a smile. He might regret it later when Neptune decided what he wanted, but for now he was good. "Excellent. Now let's go, we need to get a few things."

/

As Blake walked to meet Sun, she could barely contain her excitement for the day. She loved going to the beach, but since arriving in Vale she hadn't gotten a chance. Her team adamantly refused to go. Yang said she couldn't deal with getting sand in her hair, and Weiss wouldn't stop going on about how beaches were always incredibly dirty. She hadn't thought it was worth the effort to push either of them, but she also wasn't going to go by herself. She resigned herself to never getting to go until Sun brought up the idea yesterday. She leapt at the chance, and her uncharacteristic enthusiasm had brought a smile to his face that was so adorable she could still see it if she closed her eyes.

As she walked closer, she enjoyed the simple sensations. Every step she took made the smell of the beach grow stronger, and she breathed it in deep. Many people found the smell of the sea distasteful, but she loved it. It always reminded her of those pleasant childhood days when she would spend hours hanging out on the Menagerie beach, playing in the sand and running through the water. It was also close enough to the docks that the smell of fish mixed in with the water, and she could already almost taste the deliciously fresh fish she would insist they eat for lunch.

Once she got within sight of the entrance, she saw Sun and Neptune waiting for her. The sight of Neptune sent a tiny bit of disappointment through her. It wasn't that she disliked Neptune, and Sun had said he already had plans to go to the beach with people before asking her. But she had been sure he was lying when he said it, and a little part of her was disappointed that she wouldn't get to spend the whole day alone with Sun. Blake knew she should probably examine those feelings further, but she put them aside for right now. Today all she would focus on was having a fun day at the beach with friends.

"Hey Blake. Sage and Scarlet bounced on us, but I think we'll have a great day with just the three of us." Sun said with a smile. Neptune remained quiet, though, and Blake looked over to see nervousness written all over his face. He kept glancing at the beach and shuddering every time they could hear a wave crashing against the sand.

"Everything okay, Neptune?" She asked. Neptune jumped a little before turning back to her and making a poor attempt to appear nonchalant.

"Nope, nothing's wrong. Everything's good. You guys go in. I'll be right behind you." He said. Sun shrugged and motioned her forward, and they both entered the beach.

"What's wrong with Neptune?" She asked as they walked towards the changing room.

"He's afraid of water." Sun leaned over to whisper in her ear, and the feeling of his warm breath on her neck caused a shiver of excitement to run down her spine.

"Really? Why?" She asked back. She knew a little bit of her excitement came through in her voice, and she hoped Sun didn't notice it. Sun shrugged.

"No idea. He always refuses to talk about it. Still, as long as we don't sit too close to the water, he'll be fine. Just give him a few minutes to work up to it." He said as they approached the changing rooms. "I'll meet you outside here, okay?" Blake nodded, and they walked into the opposite rooms. Sun brushed past her as he walked to the open door, and another slight thrill ran through her. She was glad Sun's back was turned so that he couldn't see the blush that came with it, and she quickly moved away into the changing room. She went into one of the stalls and pulled her swimsuit out of her bag. Well, not really her swimsuit. Blake's only swimsuit was sitting back on her bed in the dorm. As soon as she had gotten back, she had dug it out of the back of her closet, but once it was sitting there she realized she really didn't want to wear it. She would be lying if she said that today she didn't want to show off a little for Sun, and hers was simply more functional than stylish. She had debated raiding her teammates' closets, but she knew Weiss and Ruby wouldn't have anything better. Yang definitely would, even if she disliked the beach, but taking Yang's clothes for this would have felt too weird.

Fortunately, Velvet had come to her rescue. Or, more accurately, Velvet and her fashionista team leader. Between Coco's numerous clothes and the only-slightly-less-numerous clothes that Coco insisted on buying for Velvet, there were more than a dozen options for her to choose. It had taken much longer than she wanted because Coco insisted she tried them all, but she was incredibly happy with the results. She quickly changed and walked out to look at herself in the mirror. A short black bottom that was just tight enough in all the right places and a top tied low enough to, as Coco put it, "drive Sun crazy". Coco had definitely been overstating it, but Blake knew she looked great.

She walked out, excited to see Sun's reaction, but when she saw him standing outside, she stopped cold. The way her heart sped up and her breath caught when she saw him didn't make a lot of sense, logically. After all, Sun being shirtless wasn't too much of a difference from the way his abs were always visible anyway. She got _plenty_ of enjoyment out of staring at that, but for some reason she couldn't quite place something about being able to see all of him made it infinitely better.

"Ready to go? Neptune set up a place for us already." Sun asked. Blake nodded, and they set off. As she walked, she realized with a twinge of disappointment that she had been too distracted to notice Sun's reaction to her. Which then got her wondering if Sun noticed her reaction to _him_ , and she suddenly started blushing again. Fortunately, Sun seemed too focused on Neptune to look at her.

"So what's the plan?" She asked.

"I was thinking we enjoy the beach for a while, go swimming, then grab lunch and see how we feel after."

"Works for me." She replied. They walked until they reached Neptune, who had already set up a few towels for them to use on the beach. Neptune still looked uncomfortable, but the nervousness seemed to have faded into resignation. Blake picked the closest towel and sunk down into it. She stretched out on the soft sand as the warmth of the sun enveloped her.

"Hey Blake?" Sun asked. Blake opened her eyes to see him standing above her. She had the most fascinating view from this angle, and she couldn't keep a slight smile off her face.

"Yes?"

"Do me?" He asked. As soon as she heard that, her brain short circuited as a series of incredibly pleasant images flooded through her mind. She wasn't sure how long it was before she noticed Sun waving his hand in front of her face. "Hello? You there?"

"Uh, yeah, what?" She replied breathlessly.

"A little help?" He asked as he shook a bottle of sunscreen in his other hand. Blake felt herself turning bright red when she realized what he had meant.

"Right, sure, come here." He handed over the bottle and laid down next to her, and she put some on her hand and started putting it on. She tried to turn her brain off while doing it and successfully managed to enjoy the pleasant sensation of his hard muscles beneath her hands without devolving into fantasies of anything else. Once she finished, she handed him back the bottle and rolled over, and Sun came over and started on her back. The slight uncomfortable cold of the lotion faded into the most incredible sensation of Sun running his hands over her back. The minute it must have taken stretched on for what felt like forever, and it was only once he finished that Blake realized she had been purring the entire time. She quickly cut it off, but there's no way Sun hadn't heard her. Thankfully, he decided not to mention it, and Blake could breathe a quiet sigh of relief as he moved away and closed his eyes on his towel. She joined him and closed her eyes to simply listen to the calming sound of waves washing onto the beach.

They laid there for almost two hours before they decided it was time to go swimming. Blake and Sun went off towards the water, leaving Neptune mumbling some obvious excuse behind them. The water was a little cold at first, but it only took a few minutes for it to fade into a comfortable warmth. Sun had brought a beach ball with his things, and they started tossing it between them. There was a simple fun in diving through the water trying to keep it in the air, and she lost track of time until a rumbling in her stomach informed her that it was time to eat.

As they got out and walked back to their stuff, Blake noticed that the water glistening on Sun as it slowly dripped off provided a view she could easily get lost in. She quickly averted her eyes and focused on the sand. The view might have been fantastic, but the last thing she needed was to embarrass herself again. They collected Neptune, dried off, and walked over to get a delicious lunch of fresh fish. Blake ate a little too much, and by the time they got back all she wanted to do was crack open a book and bask in the warmth of the day.

"What now?" Sun asked as she sat down again.

"I'm planning on reading for a while. You and Neptune can do something on your own." She didn't really think that would be an issue for them, which is why his next words were so shocking.

"Why don't we read it together?" Sun asked. There was a slight hesitation in his voice that made Blake think he was expecting her to say no. It was really sweet, and she felt her heart melting a little.

"We can if you want, but I didn't think you were interested in reading." Sun shrugged at her and gave her a sly smile.

"I'm not, but I'm sure it'll be fun if you're reading it. Your voice is incredible, Blake. There's nothing you could say that wouldn't be interesting." The comment was delivered very casually, but Blake still couldn't stop her blush from the compliment. She reached over to her bag and pulled out her latest book. She wasn't that far into it so she decided to restart it for Sun's sake. She began reading, and Sun sat there listening intently to her. Neptune's attention clearly started to drift off after the first few pages, and she expected Sun to join him. But, chapter after chapter, he remained focused on her. She kept reading until the light from the sun started to dim. Looking up, she saw storm clouds on the horizon.

"We should probably go before it starts to pour." Blake said. They quickly packed up their things and started back towards the city. As they walked, Blake looked over at her friends and smiled. "I glad you guys enjoy the beach too. No one on my team really wants to come with me."

Sun returned a smile to match her own. "Yep, I had a great time. Want to come back here soon? We can keep reading the book too." Neptune didn't say anything until Sun nudged him, at which point he gave an affirmative grunt. That wasn't surprising given his fear of the water, and honestly Blake wouldn't mind if next time Sun didn't drag him along.

"Sure. I'd love that."


	8. Chapter 8

Weiss took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her nervousness before she spoke. "Ruby, hi. I was wondering if you wanted to, you know, um, go get dinner tonight?" The words hung in the air for a few seconds before Weiss sighed.

"No, no, no. That's too vague. She won't even know you're asking her out." She said to herself. She took a few more deep breaths. "Hello Ruby. I was hoping you would join me for an evening out. I would love the pleasure of your company." She knew as soon as she finished speaking that one was even worse.

"Way, way too formal. Formal goes right over Ruby's head. Just be casual, Weiss. A nice, casual invite." She took another deep breath, turned to the bathroom mirror, and stared straight into her reflection's eyes. "Hey Ruby. Do you want to go get dinner tonight? Just the two of us?" She asked. She gave it a little bit, but no criticism of it came to mind. That would be perfect. Of course, whether she could work up the nerve to ask Ruby was another question.

"Still a little too vague. You're gonna have to spell out that it's a date if you want her to realize it." Blake's voice came from behind her. Weiss spun around, face already flushing bright red.

"Blake! You're back. Why are you back so soon? You were supposed to be gone for hours. You should have told me you were coming so I could be ready. Because this isn't what it looks like!"

Blake laughed at her. "So you aren't planning on asking out Ruby?"

"No, of course not!" She insisted. For a few seconds, at least, until Weiss realized how ridiculous she sounded. She decided to drop the pretense. Maybe Blake would have some ideas to help. "Okay, so I was. I'm just not sure how to do it. You know how oblivious she is sometimes. How am I supposed to make it clear, and not come on too strong, _and_ not make it awkward? You need to help me!" She blurted out. She stared at Blake, mentally preparing to be laughed at again, but Blake seemed to be considering her words carefully.

"Ask her if she wants to go on a date to get dinner with you. It's simple and clear. And don't be wound up too tight when you do it. She'll be less likely to understand it if you're struggling through the whole thing." Blake finally said.

"But what am I going to do if I'm that clear and she turns me down? I don't even know if she likes girls!"

Blake walked over and looked her in the eyes. "Trust me, Weiss, she'll say yes if you ask her." The certainty in her voice filled Weiss with a confidence she had been lacking, and she instantly felt better about asking Ruby.

"Okay, I will. Thanks." Weiss said. Blake started to leave, but since they were already talking about these things Weiss decided she should ask something that had been bothering her. "What about you? What are you going to do about your situation?"

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about." Blake lied. It was Weiss' turn to laugh.

"So you haven't noticed that Sun and Yang are tripping over themselves trying to date you?"

"Well they're not doing a very good job then. Neither one has asked me out."

"Sure, but they clearly want to ask you. Knowing them, I'm sure they both have two equally stupid reasons why they won't, but that doesn't mean you can't. Blake, we've reached the point where you can barely keep it in your pants half the time one of them is around. You can't keep going on like this."

"That's a complete over exaggeration!" Blake said. Weiss' only response was to look her in the eyes and wait. Eventually the awkwardness became too much, and Blake gave in with a small shrug. "Maybe you have a point. I just can't choose, you know? Yang is funny and sweet and trustworthy, but she isn't a Faunus. She'll try her best, but there's a part of my life she'll never truly understand. Sun can, and he's a great guy, but if I pick him would it only be because he's a Faunus too? That doesn't seem fair to any of us. What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, but you have to do something."

"Why? We're all friends, and nothing is awkward, nobody's feelings are hurt. What's wrong with that?"

Weiss sighed. Blake could be amazingly dense sometimes. "Because it won't last. Something is going to give eventually, and the longer you let this go on the worse the inevitable collapse."

Blake stood still for a few minutes, clearly considering Weiss' words, before she spoke again. "You're right. I'll take some time to figure it out soon. After you ask out Ruby."

"That's not fair! Don't pin your romantic problems onto me." Blake's face lit up in a sudden wicked smile, and Weiss began to get a very bad feeling in her stomach.

"No, what's not fair is that I texted Ruby and told her you needed to speak to her right now. She'll be here any minute." Panic and annoyance began rising inside Weiss, and she took a few threatening steps towards Blake. But before she could get close enough to wring her little neck, Blake laughed and disappeared out the door.

Weiss started running to go after her but by the time she reached the front door, Ruby was walking through it. "Hey Weiss, what's up?" She asked. "Blake said you needed to ask me something important."

This wasn't how Weiss had wanted to do it, but she decided to grit her teeth and try anyway. "Yes, well, a friend of my father's opened a restaurant in Vale recently. He said that I could come around for a free meal whenever I wanted. So I was wondering if you wanted to go with me tomorrow? We'd have to wear fancy dresses, but it could be fun, right?" Weiss asked hesitantly. But then Ruby's face lit up in a bright smile, and Weiss felt her heart soar.

"That sounds great! You make the reservation, I'll go tell Blake and Yang. Blake will probably want to bring Sun so let's make it for five people, okay?"

Weiss panicked at that a little but made an effort to suppress it. She had forgotten to mention the date part, but all she had to do was clarify it now. "Ruby, that's not w-"

"Okay, cool. I'll see you later!" Ruby said before a blur of petals shot out the door. Weiss walked over to the wall and began banging her head against it. She couldn't believe how badly she had screwed that up! Still, Weiss was a little comforted that at least Ruby hadn't said no. She could always try again later, and next time she'd practice enough to get it so perfect that even Ruby couldn't fail to notice it.

/

Yang was walking through Beacon towards her dorm when Ruby ran up, grabbed her, and pulled her into the nearest empty room. She was flushed red and out of breath, and Yang instantly got worried for her little sister.

"What's wrong, Ruby?" Yang asked.

"Well, Weiss asked me out on a date." Yang's worry disappeared as she broke into a huge smile.

"That's great, Rubes! What are you guys doing?" Instead of answering, Ruby began fidgeting back and forth nervously, and a little bit of that worry began to reappear.

"Uh, about that..." Yang could have stepped in, but she decided to let Ruby flounder until she got to the point. "Well, she asked me out to dinner, and then I panicked and didn't know what to do so I pretended I thought she was inviting everyone and ran off to tell you." Yang stared at her little sister dumbfounded.

"Seriously?" She asked. Ruby nodded glumly. "I thought you wanted this?"

"I do! But I never thought she did, so when she asked, I said the first thing that came to mind."

"Okay, but that's easy enough to fix. Go back, explain what happened, and you guys can go on your date." Yang thought it was a reasonable suggestion, but Ruby's face lit up in panic.

"No way. Absolutely no way. What if I'm wrong, and she really did mean everyone? That would be a disaster!"

There was no way it wasn't meant to be a date, but Yang decided to indulge her. "Are you wrong?"

"No, but what if I am? There's no way I can do it. You need to come with us. I'll talk with her after the dinner." Yang sighed. She wished Ruby would be able to get over this on her own, but she knew her too well to try and push her. Plus, Weiss asking her out once was a very positive sign. She would do it again and knowing her do it in a way Ruby couldn't even pretend not to understand.

"Fine. An evening out for all of us could be fun."


	9. Chapter 9

**First, I want to start off with an apology. I never meant to put such a long break in the story, but I just started having less time to write and it fell by the wayside. Fortunately, I'm happy to say I've pretty much finished writing it. Depending on chapter breakdown, there will be 4-5 more, coming every 1-2 weeks. So, with housekeeping out of the way, I hope you enjoy the conclusion to Wardrobe Malfunction.**

Ruby stared at the multitude of choices in front of her and felt true despair for the first time in her entire life. "There's no way I can do this." She said. Yang sighed from behind her.

"Ruby, it's a fancy restaurant. You have to dress nicely."

"I already dress nicely!" She replied.

"You know what I mean, Ruby. Your clothes are fine normally, but do you really want to be the only person dressed casually in an expensive restaurant? You'll stick out."

"I'll stick out anyway! Can you imagine how ridiculous I'd look in any of these?" Ruby gestured down at the eight red dresses laying on Yang's bed. They were all differing shades and types and sitting on the bed they all looked gorgeous. Weiss or Yang or Blake in any of them would be stunning, but on her they would look awful. Surely Yang could see that obvious truth.

Yang, however, was being unreasonable. "You'll look fantastic in any of these, Ruby. That's why I picked them out. Can't you just trust me on this?" Ruby wanted to argue further, but instead she sighed in defeat. There was no reasoning with Yang when she got like this.

"Fine. I'll try them all on. Quickly." Ruby could put aside her discomfort for a while to convince Yang, and then they could go pick out some nice, realistic, comfortable clothes for her to wear. She grabbed the closest one and left to change, and through some very careful maneuvering managed to get it on without ripping anything. She didn't even bother looking in the mirror before leaving the bathroom; she knew she would look silly without having to see it.

"Happy?" She asked Yang once she returned to the room.

"Almost. Twirl a little." She replied. Ruby turned in a circle once before grabbing the next dress and moving to change. She went through the entire series the same way, and in a blessedly short time she was finally stripping out of the last one. She changed back into her normal clothes before leaving the room and collapsing onto Weiss' bed.

"See? I told you they'd all be terrible." Ruby said. Yang hadn't spoken a word about her thoughts the entire time, but Ruby was sure that after eight examples she'd proven her point.

"Did you even fully look at any of them?" Yang asked.

"Didn't have to look. I could feel they were wrong." Yang sighed when she heard that.

"Well, I'd say we should go to the store and try some different dresses, but I'm pretty sure I know how that'll turn out. But you have to wear something nice if you want to go, Ruby. And you do want to go, right?" Ruby nodded without a second thought. She wouldn't miss this dinner for anything, no matter what she had to do. "Good. Then I'm picking what you looked best in, and you'll be wearing it. Okay?"

Ruby wasn't happy about it, but she recognized by now that Yang had a point. And she did trust that Yang had her best interests at heart. "Fine. I'll do it, but only because I have to."

"Good. I'll ask Jaune if we can use his room to change before the dinner. By the time we're done, Weiss won't be able to take her eyes off you the entire night."

/

Ruby looked okay. After two hours of work, and another half an hour of encouragement from Yang, she could safely say she was presentable. The dress Yang ended up picking was one of the more modest ones. It started off as a deep crimson at the top and slowly faded to a red similar to her cloak by the time it reached the bottom. Combined with Yang's excellent makeup skills, she felt confident she could mostly slip into the background. Not looking good enough to attract positive attention, while also not looking so bad that she attracted negative. It was, honestly, the place she would be happiest tonight.

Plus, seeing Yang's outfit made her feel much more comfortable. With a golden dress tighter and much lower cut than Ruby's own and hair and makeup that looked professional, Yang could only accurately be described as gorgeous. Next to her, nobody would even notice Ruby. Well, hopefully Weiss would, but everyone else would spend their time staring at Yang.

"Ready, Rubes? They're probably waiting outside for us by now." Ruby nodded, and they left the room and walked out the dorm. Once they reached sight of the others, Ruby stopped dead. Blake was wearing a cute black dress and Sun was leaning against a tree looking uncomfortable in a tux, but Ruby barely glanced at them. Weiss was standing there with a nervous smile on her face, and there was nothing Ruby would rather look at than her. She was wearing a beautiful white and blue dress that seemed to shimmer every time she moved in the failing light. A silver snowflake necklace laid across her neck with a flashing diamond that immediately drew the eye. She was elegant, incredible, breathtaking. Ruby swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and walked over to them.

"Hey Weiss. You look, um, great." Ruby blushed as soon as she realized she said it, but she was also glad her brain settled on great. It wasn't even close to being an accurate description, but the truth would be too embarrassing to blurt out.

"Thanks Ruby. You do too." Ruby knew she was lying to make her feel better, but it was incredibly sweet of her to try. She flashed Weiss a smile that made her blush this time.

"Okay, let's go then." They all started walking to the Bullhead that would take them to the city. Ruby lagged behind with Weiss while the rest of them took the lead. Blake was walking in the middle, and both Yang and Sun were a little too far into her personal space. Ruby shook her head. Blake didn't seem to mind, but if they kept being that obvious about it the entire night, she would probably start getting suspicious.

"Hey, do you mind if I hold onto you? I'm not used to walking in heels." Weiss asked. She was so stunning in the dress that Ruby hadn't even noticed the heels. Which, considering this was the first time Weiss was ever the same height as her, said a lot about how distracted she was.

"Of course not." Ruby said, though her heart started pounding so loudly she thought Weiss might hear it. Weiss grabbed her hand and pulled herself closer, and Ruby was suddenly right up next to her partner. It wasn't the first time they'd ever been this close, but it was the first time it ever felt so intimate.

"Thanks." Weiss smiled at her, and Ruby struggled to keep any of her current feelings off her face. Walking with her, like this, felt so incredible. It felt right in a way that she wasn't sure she could quite explain. She knew that this was how the world was supposed to be. Her and Weiss, walking together on a beautiful night. It didn't take them long to reach the Bullhead, and after a quick flight and a short walk they arrived at the restaurant.

The restaurant was by far the fanciest looking place she'd ever been. The walls were outlined with a pure golden trim, the tables were set with sterling silver plates and crystal glasses, and the whole area was lit up by several intricate glass chandeliers hanging off the ceiling. The way the light bounced off the multicolored glass gave the whole room a soft, warm lighting that struck her as very romantic. Ruby looked around in the waiting area as they walked to the reception, but every single seat was filled. She was worried they would end up standing in a corner waiting for a while, but Weiss simply told her name to the receptionist and they were immediately taken to be seated. Their table was the largest one in the room, and it was set up in a secluded corner. Ruby went to sit in the back with Weiss but was quickly cut off by Yang practically dragging Blake ahead of them to get seated. She wasn't entirely sure why until a sullen Sun took the seat at the head of the table, putting Yang slightly closer to Blake. Not much of a difference, but Ruby didn't doubt that Yang saw it as a victory. Ruby went to sit down with Weiss on the remaining side, but on a whim, she pulled out Weiss' seat for her. Weiss gave her the cutest blush in reply, and she felt her heart soaring as she sat down herself.

"Everything's free tonight, so don't worry about the prices." Weiss said as they all grabbed the menus in front of them. Ruby was glad she did too. She didn't even know food could get this expensive. She'd never seen things that went into triple digits before. And while she wasn't entirely sure what half the menu was, she quickly spotted a safe choice for her to pick. It was hard to go wrong with a nice steak, even if she wasn't entirely sure what '"au poivre" meant. She was too embarrassed to ask so she'd just have to hope it wasn't too big a change.

Ruby was done with the menu, but she couldn't bring herself to put it down. She wanted to talk to Weiss like normal, but even a single glance at her sent Ruby's heart fluttering wildly. Even when the waiter came to take the drink order, Ruby asked for a water without lowering it at all. She was beginning to wonder if she could eat her entire dinner like this when Weiss finally broke the silence.

"Do you need a little help, Ruby? You've probably never had Atlas cuisine before. It can be confusing at first." Weiss moved her chair over until she was sitting a few inches away and leaned over until they were touching shoulders. Ruby felt a heat start to creep up her face as she nodded, not entirely sure she could speak right now.

Weiss went to the first item and started explaining what all the fancy words meant. It only took a few dishes before Ruby felt herself start to relax. Weiss helping her understand something was so familiar that it managed to restart her brain. She soon began responding to her with actual words, and it quickly turned into what felt like a normal conversation between them.

As they talked, Ruby occasionally looked up at the other side of the table to see what was clearly a competition going on between Sun and Yang. As Yang talked, she kept leaning in to whisper, somehow always managing to brush up against Blake when she did. Sun was leaning back, one hand at his side while the other rested on the back of Blake's chair. The tips of his fingers were just low enough that they rubbed against her shoulder whenever he moved them.

Blake sat in the middle of both, failing miserably at pretending that she didn't realize what the people on either side of her were doing. She didn't seem to have put together what was happening between her two suitors, but if they kept being that obvious about it, she was sure to notice soon. Fortunately for them all, the arrival of dinner saved them from that unpleasant realization, at least for the moment.

All the food looked amazing, and Ruby dug into hers as soon as the waiter walked away. It was incredibly delicious. It wasn't the best dinner she'd eaten, but it was definitely up near the top. She was done in no time, but when she looked up, she was surprised to see that everyone else was almost done as well. She normally ate much faster than anyone else at the table, besides Nora, but apparently the food here was good enough that nobody could help themselves.

Once they finished, they talked for a little while longer before Weiss stood up to leave. Ruby followed suit without thinking about it, but as they turned and walked towards the door, she suddenly realized what was happening. She knew the dinner was free, but it felt surreal and, as much as she hated to admit it, rather exciting to simply walk out of dinner without paying for it. Once they left the restaurant, Ruby grabbed Weiss' hand again without really thinking about it. She was half worried Weiss would pull away immediately, but instead she turned and gave her a radiant smile.

As they walked to the airship, Yang, Blake, and Sun lagged far enough behind them that it felt like the two of them were alone. As they quietly talked, Ruby reflected that tonight, despite her fears, had ended up being fantastic. She realized she was finally ready to admit her feeling for her partner. The next time Weiss asked her to dinner, she knew exactly what she was going to say.


	10. Chapter 10

Weiss stifled a yawn as she paced back and forth in her room, waiting for Ruby to come back from breakfast. She wanted to lay down, but she knew if she did, she would fall asleep almost instantly. She was exhausted after barely sleeping last night. They'd all gone to bed as soon as they got back to their room, but Weiss spent the whole night staring at the bottom of Ruby's bed thinking about the dinner. The wonderful, magical, incredible dinner. She had been so nervous about it right until she saw Ruby walk outside in her dress. She looked so beautiful and yet so insecure that it took all her willpower not to sprint over and give her a hug. She'd quickly gotten the idea to pretend to be having trouble with her shoes to try and distract her, and that seemed to work well until they reached the restaurant and Ruby hid behind her menu. Fortunately, she'd managed to draw Ruby out through her explanations, and after that the dinner was better than she could have hoped for. She was having such a good time that she'd often forgotten they weren't alone until a particularly obvious gesture from the other side of the table briefly drew her attention. Yang and Sun were both so heavily flirting with Blake she was shocked neither asked her out yet, but they did provide an example Weiss was determined to avoid.

That's why she was going tell Ruby her feelings now. As soon as Ruby walked through the door, Weiss was going to ask her out on a romantic dinner date point blank. At least that way she'd know how Ruby felt, one way or another. It might break her heart, or it might be the most incredible thing that ever happened to her. There was no way to know without trying, and despite the fear she felt built up inside her she was determined to see this through.

Weiss paced for what felt like forever before Ruby finally walked through the door. She noticed Weiss and ground to a halt. "Uh, Weiss, is everything okay?" She asked nervously. Because of course she was worried. Walking in on her friend in an obviously worked up state would do that to her. Weiss felt a rush of embarrassment and worked hard to keep her face from turning red. She hadn't even been thinking of how she would look when Ruby returned. This wasn't the best start to this conversation, but she was determined to work through it. She took a deep breath to settle herself before speaking.

"Yes, everything's fine. I just had a question I needed to ask you. Last night was a lot of fun, and I want to do it again. But just us this time. I really like you, and I want to go to a romantic dinner with you. On a date." There. That couldn't possibly be clearer. There was a few seconds pause after the question, and Weiss felt her heart begin to drop before Ruby smiled and nodded.

"Okay. I'd love that." Weiss barely contained herself from letting out a cheer. She felt like a giant weight was lifted off her. After all this time, she'd finally confessed how she felt. And Ruby's yes must have meant that she felt the same.

"Great." She gave a relieved laugh. "That's what I wanted for last night, but I couldn't get it out correctly before."

Ruby's smile was replaced with a guilty look. "No, you did. I knew why you asked me."

"What?"

"I knew you were asking me on a date, but I panicked and pretended I misunderstood you."

"Ruby, why?"

She glanced away from Weiss towards the ground. "I was nervous. Look at you. You're gorgeous and brilliant and talented and refined and amazing. I'm just plain old Ruby Rose. How could I possibly be good enough for someone like you?" Weiss had been annoyed at the deception, but there was a resigned pain in Ruby's voice that forced that away. Whatever happened, she never wanted Ruby to feel that way again. She rushed forward and grabbed Ruby's hands in her own.

"Don't ever think like that, Ruby. You're incredible. Anyone would be lucky to have you as their girlfriend." Ruby looked up from the ground and met her eyes.

"You mean it?"

"Yes, you silly dolt." Ruby smiled at her, and Weiss' heart soared. Ruby stepped forward quickly and suddenly was kissing her, sending the most incredible feeling running through her entire body. It went on for a few blissful seconds before Ruby stepped back and blushed, clearly embarrassed. They both stood there awkwardly without speaking. Weiss was at such a loss that she decided to change the subject to clear the air instead.

"Uh, well, I'm glad we got that out in the open, unlike the rest of our friends. Seriously, Yang and Sun were practically tripping over each other to flirt with Blake last night. I don't understand why one of them hasn't asked her out yet."

"I know why. Yang said they agreed to wait for Blake to choose one of them on her own."

"Seriously? Why would they do that?"

"Yes, tell us Ruby. Why exactly would they do that?" A voice said from the door. Weiss turned and froze. Blake was standing in the open doorway, anger clear on her face.

"Oh, uh, hi Blake. We were just-" Ruby jumped back in surprise as Blake slammed the door and stormed towards her.

"Don't even try, Ruby." Blake said. She stopped a few feet away from Ruby and glared at her intently.

"Yang is going to kill me." Ruby said in a quiet voice. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before starting to explain the whole situation. Weiss listened in amazement as Ruby kept talking. It sounded bad from the outside, but Weiss didn't doubt the pair started with good intentions. It was undoubtedly idiotic, but she could at least see where they were coming from with it. But whatever their intentions, last night made it clear to Weiss that they let it turn into a competition between the two with Blake as the "prize". And, judging from the look of rage on Blake's face, she'd reached the same conclusion.

As soon as Ruby finished speaking, the room fell into uncomfortable silence. They stood still for a few minutes before Blake finally exploded. "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?" Blake yelled. Ruby's face twisted like she was barely holding back tears, and Weiss' own temper surged.

"Back off Blake. This isn't her fault." Blake looked like she wanted to argue, but she instead fell silent again.

"You're right." Blake said. "It's their fault. And you both are going to help me teach them a lesson." Weiss really didn't want to get further in the middle of this, but Blake wasn't exactly in the mood for them to say no. And, honestly, she was fairly disappointed in how Yang and Sun had treated Blake. Driving home that this sort of behavior wasn't acceptable wasn't the worst idea in the world. She nodded, and after a few seconds Ruby did too.

"Okay, what's the plan?"

/

Sun paused outside Team RWBY's dorm door for a second to check over his appearance one last time. He adjusted his shirt slightly before nodding, satisfied, and knocking on the door. He entered when he heard "Come in." and came in to see a surprise. Instead of the expected Blake, Ruby was laying alone on her bed.

"Hey Ruby. Do you know where Blake is? She asked me to meet her here."

"Yeah, she just left. Said she finally made an important decision and really needed to talk to Yang." Sun's face fell at those words, and his heart soon followed. They could really only mean one thing.

"Do you know what she wanted to talk about?" Sun wasn't entirely sure why he even asked. He knew he was desperately reaching, he knew it was pointless, but he also couldn't stop himself from trying.

"Not sure. She was reading that book when she suddenly got up and almost ran out." Ruby pointed to a book on the desk, and Sun walked over until he could see the cover. When he read the title, his heart sunk so low he felt it reach his toes. _The Art of Romance_ written in big letters over a heart. There was a bookmark hanging out of the middle, and he pulled it open to the page to see the chapter called "The Best Ideas to Finally Ask Out Your Crush". That confirmed it then. It couldn't have been more obvious what had happened. Blake finally chose who she wanted, and it wasn't him.

It stung, even more than he expected it to hurt. He realized that throughout this whole thing he hadn't adequately prepared himself for the possibility of losing, and he was paying the price for it now. But, as bad as it was, he had meant what he said. He was going to be a supportive friend for their relationship, even if he carried around this stabbing pain inside him forever.

"Tell Blake I'll call her tomorrow, okay?" He asked Ruby. She nodded, and he quickly walked out the door. He walked out the dorm and started towards the city. He didn't really have a clue where he was going. Right now, all he wanted was to be alone.

/

As Blake walked towards the bench, Yang noticed that she looked nervous. Her heart started to beat faster and faster as she got closer and sat down. Asking to suddenly meet her alone, saying she had something important to say, acting uncharacteristically nervous. Yang knew it had to be what she'd been waiting for. Blake had chosen who she wanted. Blake sat without saying anything, but Yang didn't have any desire to interrupt her. She was willingly to wait here all night if that's what Blake needed.

Finally, Blake spoke up. "Yang, how do you feel about dating teammates?" She asked quietly. Yang took a second to hide the smile she felt creeping up her face before she responded.

"I think, if two people really like each other, they shouldn't let anything stand in their way."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why are you asking?"

Her response made Yang feel like she was going to explode in joy. "I've been developing these feelings, but I wasn't sure if I should act on them. I was nervous it might mess with the team. But you're right, I should follow my heart." Blake paused for a few seconds to take a deep breath, and Yang waited for the words she so desperately wanted to hear. Her anticipation skyrocketed higher and higher with each second.

Only to come crashing down at Blake's next words. "Weiss went to go study at the library. I'm going to go ask her out right now."

"Wait, what? Weiss?" Yang blurted out. Blake shot her a puzzled look.

"Yeah, Weiss. Who did you think I was talking about?" Yang was so stunned she couldn't even come up with an answer. She couldn't believe this was happening right now. She didn't snap out of it until Blake started calling her name.

"Uh, no one. Forget about it." Yang responded unconvincingly.

"Okay then. Well, thanks for the advice. I'll see you later." Blake said as she started to get up. Yang knew she needed to stop this somehow. Her mind cast around for something, anything, until it clicked for her.

"What about Ruby? You know she has feelings for Weiss."

"You said it yourself. Ruby is too young for love. Weiss is a big girl, Yang. I'll ask her out, and if she'd rather be with Ruby she'll refuse. She deserves to have the choice." Blake got up and walked away without another word. Yang couldn't help but notice the nervousness was replaced by a skip in her step, and it made her pain even worse.

She sat on the bench feeling sorry for herself for a while before shaking her head and standing up. She realized she was being ridiculous. Weiss liked Ruby, not Blake. She would say no, and then Yang would give up this game and ask Blake out. Yang nodded to herself, satisfied. It was a solid plan. She started to walk back to her room, but the entire time she couldn't get a thought out of her head. Weiss was definitely going to say no, but what if she didn't?


	11. Chapter 11

Ruby wasn't happy. It was bad enough tricking Yang, even if she agreed that Yang deserved a little payback after her stupid game, but watching Blake and Weiss together was even worse. She knew it was fake, that neither of them held romantic feelings for the other, but both of them were doing such a good job of acting that, if Ruby didn't know better, she'd absolutely believe they were a couple. Yang clearly bought into the deception. She was sitting in silence, not eating a bite of her breakfast, and trying her best to keep the obvious heartbreak off her face. Watching Weiss and Blake, holding hands and whispering to each other, quietly laughing together, by all appearance's ecstatic girlfriends, must be killing Yang inside.

"So, we were thinking of going dancing on our first date. Yang, do you have any suggestions on a good club?" Ruby winced internally. She knew Blake was angry, but that was a little too mean. Yang stared at the Weiss in annoyance, but her voice was steady as she answered.

"There's a few you might enjoy. I'll send you a list later today."

"Thanks. You're a great friend, Yang." The casual way Blake delivered the "compliment" probably hurt Yang worse than if Blake decided to yell at her for her behavior. Ruby was starting to regret agreeing to help Blake. It seemed appropriate at the time, but Blake was taking it a bit far. Maybe she would ask Blake to tone it down later, but for now all she wanted to do was leave the room.

"I'm done. I'll see you guys later." Ruby said.

"Wait, Ruby." Weiss said. "Professor Port's test is next week, and you need to study. We're going to the library." Ruby instantly felt better. Weiss clearly had no desire to keep up the charade either.

"I'll see you later, sweetie." Blake said. She leaned over and gave Weiss a kiss on the cheek. Weiss blushed in the first thing that wasn't an act before walking out the door with Ruby. She waited until they were out of sight of the cafeteria before grabbing Ruby's hand. The uneasy feelings roiling inside her disappeared.

"That's much better." Ruby said. Weiss gave her a surprised look.

"Ruby, were you jealous?" She asked. Ruby froze her automatic denial before it came out. She thought about it a bit and realized Weiss was right. For the first time in her life, Ruby had been jealous of a friend.

"A little. I know it was an act, but you were so convincing the whole time. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's kinda sweet, actually." Weiss gave her a wide smile. "Don't worry, Ruby. You're the only girl for me."

"And you're the only one for me, Weiss."

"Good. Now that we've got that settled, we can focus on studying."

Ruby groaned as her hope of a fun day with Weiss vanished. "Are we really going to the library? I thought that was a lie."

"Absolutely not! You need to study. I can't have my girlfriend failing her classes." Ruby decided she didn't even want to argue the point. She might hate studying, but she loved Weiss referring to her as "my girlfriend". She would put up any amount of work to keep getting to hear that.

/

Sun had been in the room for less than an hour, but he already regretted agreeing to hang out with Blake. He really hadn't wanted to see her this soon, but he figured that part of being a supportive friend was to not stop spending time with her. On the way here, he's prepared himself to hear about Blake and Yang's new relationship. That probably would have been more palatable. Instead, he was completely blindsided by the news that Weiss and Blake were dating. He was still struggling to process it. He knew there must have been some sign of these feelings that he missed. It was hard to believe that he got so wrapped up on Blake and Yang that he'd let it blind him to Blake's actual desires, but he couldn't think of any other explanation that made any sense. It was making him feel even worse, something he would have sworn was impossible yesterday.

"Sun, are you even listening to me?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, of course." He lied. He hadn't heard a word she said for the last few minutes. Again, he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to pay attention to what was in front of him.

"Good. So after our walk, we went to the most romantic dinner. Everything lit by candlelight, soft music playing from a live band, the faint scent of flowers in the air. It was magical."

"Sounds like fun."

"It was the best night of my life. I can't wait to do it again. I've never been so happy before. The world feels so much brighter when you're finally sharing it with the woman of your dreams." He had no doubt that Blake was right, not that he'd ever find out what it felt like now. He'd messed up his chances of getting with the woman of his dreams.

"That's great." He said, but he couldn't muster much feeling into it. Blake seemed to notice his flat tone and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Sun, I'm going to be spending more time with Weiss, but we're still friends. I don't want this to change anything between us."

"Me neither." She smiled gratefully at him, and he did his best to return the smile. It was going to be harder than he thought, but he was determined for it to happen.

"So, got any good ideas for a second date? I can't think of anything." Much, much harder than he thought. Still, he did his best to give a few suggestions, and Blake seemed happy enough with his answers. Thankfully, after that they moved on to other topics. It was much easier to talk to Blake like normal then, even if she did keep bringing up Weiss whenever possible. It stung every time, and he could only take it for long before he lied about having a headache and left Blake to go home.

When he got back to his room, Neptune was sitting in his bed on his scroll. He perked up as soon as he saw Sun. "Well, how was it? Did Blake tell you about dating Yang?"

"No, but she did tell me all about dating Weiss." A look of shock appeared on Neptune's face before he whistled.

"I knew this wouldn't work out well, but it went off the rails much more than even I thought. How did that happen?"

"No idea. We all missed it." Neptune must have noticed the despondent tone in his voice.

"Hey, cheer up. You never know what might happen. They could break up, and you could be the rebound!"

"Not helping."

"Fine, fine. Then let's go out tonight. There plenty of beautiful young women in the world. Let's meet a pair of them and get your mind off Blake."

"There's plenty of beautiful women, but there's only one of her." Sun responded. Neptune sighed.

"You're determined to sit here and mope, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Neptune got up from the bed and grabbed his shoes. "Fine. I'll leave you alone." He left the room but paused before he closed the door. "I did tell you so." He said before leaving. The door slammed shut behind him, and he was left alone with his thoughts. Sun wanted to be annoyed at his parting words, but he couldn't. Not when he knew Neptune had been right all along. For the first time ever, Sun desperately wished he had listened to Neptune's advice.

/

Blake wasn't enjoying her revenge as much as she'd thought she would. Learning the two people she'd thought she loved were treating her like some kind of prize crushed her inside. She'd devised this as a quick and admittedly childish way to get back at them. And it clearly worked wonders; all she had to do was look over at Sun or Yang to see the dismay on either of their faces. Watching her cuddled up next to Weiss on her bed was killing them. But the catharsis she'd hoped for wasn't coming. All it was doing was somehow making her feel even worse. She wasn't entirely sure if that was because she disliked hurting her friends, even if she was pissed at them, or because she knew she was getting in the way of Ruby and Weiss' long-awaited relationship, but at this point it didn't really matter. As much as she didn't want to have this conversation, she knew it was time to stop the act.

"Hey babe, didn't you want to get in some combat practice with Ruby today? You should go before it closes." Blake said.

"Good idea. I'll see you later." Weiss gave her hand one last squeeze before getting up and walking away with Ruby. Blake gave them enough to time get out of earshot before she spoke.

"I'm really not dating Weiss." Blake said. Sun and Yang gave her similar looks of confusion.

"What?" Sun asked.

"I know what you did." Blake said coldly. Yang and Sun both flinched back from her words. The anger she'd felt when she first learned was creeping back, and it was clearly coming through. Neither one of them was stupid. They figured out what she meant pretty quickly, and to their credit they didn't try and deny it.

"Blake, we were just trying to give you the choice." Sun said desperately. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of it as much as her.

"Bullshit!" Blake snapped back. She was yelling, now, but she couldn't bring herself to care. "You turned dating me into a competition! You treated me like an object to be won."

"No, that's not what we meant." Yang said. Her eyes were watering as she barely held back tears.

"It doesn't matter what you meant. That's what happened. I trusted you, and you both betrayed me. I'll never date either one of you. Right now, I can't even stand to look at you." Blake turned, tears in her eyes, and ran away. It shouldn't have been like this. She was the one who had been hurt. Telling them off was supposed to make her feel better and them feel terrible. It wasn't supposed to end with her running off crying. Why was it that everything she tried only seemed to make her feel worse?

/

"Another." Yang said, raising her hand to get the bartenders attention. She swept the six glasses in front of her to one side to make room for the seventh. Each one only seemed to put a band-aid on the massive wound over her heart, but perhaps enough band-aids would eventually staunch the flow. Or at least let her get fuzzy enough that she could get to sleep without being kept up by thoughts of what she'd done.

The worst part was the heartache was only half the problem. The guilt was there too, and the alcohol wasn't doing anything to reduce that. Probably because she'd realized that Blake was right. It was never what she'd intended, but somewhere along the way it'd turned into a competition. She'd stopped respecting Blake's wishes, and that's what hurt the most. Now, the one thing she'd never wanted came to pass. She'd managed to shatter the most important friendship in her life, and she wasn't sure where to even start putting the pieces back together. The bartender set the beer in front of her, and she took another swig from it. It wasn't good, even after the numerous drinks numbed her taste buds, but it was functional. And cheap, just the bar she was sitting in. Calling it seedy would be an unearned compliment, but all that really mattered was that it was empty.

That changed about halfway through her next drink. She heard the door open behind her, but she didn't pay it much mind until someone sat on the stool beside her. She looked up to see Sun, looking as miserable as she felt. "Fancy seeing you here." She said. She might have slurred it a little. Or more than a little. It was hard to tell at this point. "Want to join me in drowning my sorrows?"

"Absolutely." Sun said. He called over the bartender, ordered four shots and downed them within a minute. Unexpected and slightly impressive, although she supposed he did have some work to catch up to her.

"Blake was right." He said as he waited for another drink from the bar. Yang nodded sadly.

"Yeah, she was. We really let things get out of control, didn't we?" Sun have a bitter chuckle.

"Yep. I've never seen her so angry or so hurt. I'm not sure if she'll ever forgive us. I'm not even sure we _deserve_ to be forgiven."

"It's Blake. She'll come around eventually. At least, on the friendship. I think we've both ruined our chances for anything more." Sun didn't respond, but he didn't really need to say anything. They both knew she was right. They sat there, ordering drink after drink, sharing in each other's misery. It made her feel, not better, but more stable, sitting next to someone feeling exactly how she felt. All she needed to do was look over to see it written all over his silent face.

Yang felt her gaze drift from Sun's face to his exposed chest, the thing that started this whole fiasco. His strong, chiseled, fascinating abs. She suddenly couldn't help but move her hand over and start lazily tracing them with her fingers. Sun blushed but didn't move her, and suddenly she got a terrible, terrible idea. She knew she'd probably regret it later, but right now all she wanted was a release.

"Hey Sun, let's get out of here." She leaned over and whispered into his ear, laying a kiss on his neck as she pulled back. He jumped a little at the unexpected contact, but he also didn't move away.

"Yang, that's not a good idea."

"Of course not, but it is a _fun_ idea." She stood up from her bar stool, turned around, and slid over until she was sitting on Sun's lap facing him. His blush deepened, but he made no attempt to get her to move. An encouraging sign.

"Yang..." He began, but he stopped when she moved a finger and put it over his lips.

"We're both single. Blake made it clear she doesn't want anything to do with us. We both need to have a little fun. I want this, and so do you." She could see that much from the sudden heat in his eyes. She moved her finger off his lips. "Now, give me one good reason we shouldn't or shut up and kiss me." There were plenty of reasons this was a terrible idea. Sober, Yang could have easily come up with them. But drunk, nothing was coming to mind. Sun was clearly having the same problem. He only hesitated for a few seconds before pulling her down towards him and giving in to both their desires.


	12. Chapter 12

"That's great!" Neptune said casually from his bed. Sun, still pacing around the room, glared up at Neptune and shook his head vigorously. How could he not understand the gravity of the situation?

"No, no, it's not great. It's absolutely terrible. Haven't you been listening?" Sun replied. He could recognize that his panic was coming through in his voice, but Neptune didn't seem to care at all. His calm reply stood in stark contrast to Sun's own tone.

"Yep. You took my advice for once."

"Your horrible, horrible advice. Now I have two relationship disasters instead of just one."

"You're being over dramatic. How is this a disaster?" Neptune asked.

"Because Yang and I are friends! How can I possibly look her in the eyes after this?!" He yelled back.

"Don't. There's better places to look her anyway, and she probably won't mind you doing it after last night." Neptune laughed, and Sun felt a flash of annoyance at his friend. Neptune tended to not let things get to him, and Sun appreciated the unique perspective that gave him. Usually. At times like these, he had to fight the urge to scream in his face.

"This is not the time for jokes, Neptune."

"No, it's time for you to panic over nothing." Neptune sighed. "Look, it was a fun way for you to blow off steam that both of you clearly needed. It's obvious how well it worked."

"How is this at all better?"

"We've been talking for twenty minutes and you haven't mentioned Blake or looked like you're seconds away from bursting into tears once. That's the first time in days. I'd call that an improvement."

"Neptune, I can only focus on one problem at a time."

Neptune shook his head. "Some part of you must realize you're being ridiculous. If you really believed it was going to be such a huge problem, why would you do it?"

"It was a drunken mistake! We were both miserable, and we needed something to distract us. She made the first move, and then it just kind of happened." He'd been shocked when she slid onto his lap, but looking back at it now, it made a lot more sense. From Yang's stories, this was hardly the first one-night stand for her. Sun, however, had never done anything like it in his life, and he couldn't quite sort out the mix of emotions he was feeling. The shame was obvious, as was the fear, but there were other things in there as well, tangled up with his current feelings about what happened with Blake too much to really examine. He decided he would figure it out later. He needed to fix the broken relationship before he worried about anything else. He took a deep breath and tried to focus his thoughts.

"Right now, I need to somehow get Blake to accept my apology. Figuring out Yang can wait until afterwards." Sun said.

Neptune seemed to read into some meaning beyond simply his words. His face fell as he slumped backwards and let out a groan. "Oh no, you're going to make this into something more, aren't you? That's just great."

"No, I'm not. Yang's just a friend, and last night was a mistake. Are you even paying attention?"

"More than you, apparently. This is always what you sound like before it happens. You're already friends with her, and it's a small step from that into wanting something more. A step you can never seem to stop yourself from taking." Neptune replied wearily.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I've never done anything like that." Sun said.

"Except for Aurora and Eve and Violet. All in the four years I've known you." Sun almost laughed. Neptune was crazy if he thought this was anything like those times.

"I don't think of Yang like that." Sure, Yang was outgoing and funny and beautiful, but that didn't mean he was attracted to her. Last night had simply been an act of shared misery. It didn't mean anything else. As usual, Neptune didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

"You were the one who said this was a good thing." Sun said.

"Only because I thought you were capable of being mature about this. Clearly I was wrong." Neptune replied.

Sun waved his hands to dismiss Neptune's words. He needed to focus right now. He would prove Neptune wrong later. "You couldn't be more wrong, but right now I need to focus on what I'm going to say to Blake."

"Fine. Put out one fire before you start gathering wood for the next." Sun pulled out his scroll and texted Blake, telling her he needed to talk to her. Hopefully she'd respond soon, and he could figure out how to fix things. Even if there was nothing else, he didn't want to lose his friendship with her. He started rehearsing different apologies in his head. If he could figure out one that was just right, he could at least keep Blake's friendship. He was sure of it.

/

As Ruby lay snuggled next to Weiss, everything felt right in the world. Weiss was warm and soft and more comforting than Ruby could ever have imagined. She could have happily spent the rest of her life on this bed. "This is perfect." Ruby said. Weiss smiled over at her.

"Just wait until tonight." She replied.

"What's tonight?"

"Our first date. Now that I'm done pretending with Blake, we can finally go out in public together. I can't wait to have dinner with my beautiful new girlfriend." Ruby blushed. She'd never thought of herself as beautiful, but the sincerity in Weiss' voice made it clear she absolutely believed it. It was touching in a way she'd never felt before. Weiss really was perfect. She snuggled closer to her girlfriend and closed her eyes, enjoying the sensations as much as possible. She didn't open them again until she heard the door open and Yang walked in. She felt a flash of guilt upon seeing her. Yang had made it clear before she left that she didn't blame her or Weiss, but that didn't mean Ruby was happy that she'd let herself be complicit in hurting her sister.

"Good morning. It's good to see you two are enjoying yourselves." Ruby was surprised at her voice. Yesterday, Yang tried putting on a brave face, but Ruby was able to hear the pain under the facade. It wasn't there anymore. She sounded like she was completely fine. It was very, very suspicious.

"Hey Yang. What happened last night?" Weiss asked. Her tone made it clear she shared Ruby's suspicions.

"Went out, got drunk, hooked up with Sun." Yang said casually.

"You what?!" Weiss and Ruby said at the same time. Yang laughed.

"You really do belong together. Don't worry, it's not a big deal." She shrugged. "It was just a distraction."

"A one-night stand is not an acceptable distraction!" Weiss replied heatedly.

"But it is a fun one." Yang shot back. Weiss sighed in annoyance.

"Even if you needed a distraction, why would you do it with Sun? Out of everyone in Vale, you really felt the need to pick one of the handful of people you're friends with? " Weiss asked incredulously. Ruby thought that was a very good point, but Yang brushed it off.

"He was there, he's hot, and we were both pretty drunk. It was good for both of us."

"That's it?" Ruby asked.

"Yep. Nothing more to it." Yang replied.

"It was stupid." Weiss said. "Things are going to be awkward now."

"Maybe, but it was fun." She gave a satisfied smirk. "A lot more than I would have expected."

"Ew!" Ruby replied. "I did not need to hear that."

Yang laughed. "You guys worry too much. It'll only be weird if you make it weird." Ruby couldn't disagree more, but she also couldn't deny that it was nice to see Yang in a good mood. Maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Now, do you know where Blake is? I need to go apologize to her."

"She said she was going to read. Probably the library." Weiss replied.

"Do you have any idea what you're going to say to her?" Ruby asked.

"Nope. My plan is just to wing it. Blake would rather have something heartfelt than something rehearsed." Ruby wasn't sure about that, but Yang did know Blake better than her. "Wish me luck." Yang said before leaving the room. Weiss waited until the door closed before saying anything.

"Your sister is an idiot."

"Maybe, but what can you do?"

 **/**

Yang found her in the back of the library, nose buried into a book. She knew Blake heard her coming a while ago, but she didn't put down the book until Yang stopped a few feet in front of her. "Your turn, then?" She asked wearily. It took Yang a second to realize her meaning. It seems Sun beat her to the punch. She decided to take that as an encouraging sign. If Sun totally screwed up, Blake probably would have avoided Yang.

"Yep. You were right, Blake." Blake gave her the blank look she seemed to have mastered. It was just like the first few weeks after initiation where she'd seen it constantly. Blake hadn't given any reaction to her partner at all until Yang had managed to finally start to draw her out of her shell. It hurt more than she wanted to admit seeing them back. With no clues to help her, she decided to just roll with it and hope for the best.

"Sun and I got wrapped up in everything and messed up. We should never have treated you like that, like some kind of prize. It was disrespectful."

"And?" Not much of a response, but she'd take anything she could get right now.

"And stupid, shortsighted, arrogant, cruel, and overall pretty terrible."

"Is that it?" Blake asked.

"No. I really, really like you, Blake. In a way I've never liked anyone before. In a way I never thought I _could_ like anyone before." She paused a second before continuing. This was going to hurt to say, but she needed to tell Blake. "But I screwed that up, and I accept that. I can deal with not being your girlfriend, but I can't stand the thought of not being your friend. I don't expect you to forgive me right away."

"I wasn't planning on it." She responded, but there was a slight smirk when she said it that softened the words. It was a relief to see after the uncertainty.

"I'll work to earn back your trust, I promise. As long as you give me a chance."

"Fine." Yang's worry turned to resolution. She knew then that everything would work out. Blake was going to give her a chance, and there was no way she would let herself screw it up. "But I meant what I said. We're never getting together, Yang. Remember that."

"I will." She desperately wanted to give Blake a hug, but she knew it would be too much to ask for. She stuck out her hand, and after a terrifying few seconds of doubt Blake reached out and grasped it.


	13. Chapter 13

After a few weeks, meals between them fell into a familiar rhythm. Ruby and Weiss now sat together, arms around each other as soon as they finished eating. Blake sat next to them now while Yang, Sun, and Neptune were on the other side of the table. There was still the occasional awkward silence that stretched a little too long, but Yang had gotten the hang of filling them with some of her more wild stories. It seemed to work out well. Today she was going with one she'd been saving for a while, the one and only time she'd ever let Ruby drive her bike. After she finally fell off, she was forbidden from touching Bumblebee ever again. Yang would trust Zwei in the driver's seat before Ruby.

"And I said Bumblebee, more like Bumbletree!" Yang finished. Ruby groaned from the hundredth time she'd heard the story and beside her Weiss rolled her eyes, but Blake gave a quiet laugh. Yang felt a wave of relief. There were moments that made it clear Blake was still mad at her, but those were becoming less and less frequent. She was well on her way to repairing their friendship. And, although she would never say it, she could still sometimes feel that same heat between them. There was still a small seed of attraction there. Maybe it would never grow into anything more, but for the first time in a while Yang was okay with that. She still liked Blake, but if that didn't work out there were plenty fish in the sea. She looked over at Sun and shot him a wink, causing him to blush and look away. He still seems flustered after what happened between them, and Yang was having a blast taking full advantage of it. Of course, she hadn't entirely gotten over what happened between them either. She had found herself thinking of him differently now. The other night had been fun, and it wasn't only the alcohol or the shared misery. Maybe there was something there to explore.

Or maybe not. Maybe she'd move on to someone she hadn't met yet. She wasn't sure. But she was sure that, one way or another, she'd find someone else. That was the one good thing that came from this whole debacle. She'd realized she was wrong. At least, partially wrong. Maybe a stable, long term relationship was impossible for her. That didn't mean she should shut herself off from that entirely. She might end up crashing and burning every time she tried, but she was going to enjoy every second of the thrilling ride down.

 **And that's it for Wardrobe Malfunction. I do hope you enjoyed it. Thanks everyone for reading, and a special thanks to everyone who left any reviews.**


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